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The following is the Eight technological trends change the world From Amazon CTO Werner Vogels forecasts 2021 recommended by recordtrend.com. And this article belongs to the classification: Industry information.
On December 18, 2020, as the three-week Amazon re: invent global conference is coming to a close, Dr. Werner Vogels, vice president and chief technology officer of Amazon, delivered a closing speech, sharing his prediction of the technology trend in 2021. Werner also looks back on 2020, which he says is so different that the way businesses and government agencies work and operate has changed radically. And it’s technology that helps us cope with the big changes. Online classes help children continue to receive education, online meetings replace business meeting rooms, bars and cafes, online videos let people continue to have movie nights, and technology helps people support their families, educate their children and work together, and they can enjoy themselves in isolation at home. Instead of slowing us down, the 2020 epidemic has accelerated our march towards the digital world. In his view, thanks to this accelerated change, 2021 will become the starting point for all kinds of changes. Here is his forecast for next year and the future.
1. Everywhere, cloud will be everywhere (in 2021, the push of cloud to the edge will be further accelerated)
The era when all cloud functionality is concentrated in the data center is beginning to disappear. You’ll find that cloud applications can help improve the performance of ships at sea, help airplanes cross the sky, embed Cloud Applications in cars, and enter home life. Not only data centers with dense equipment, but also in rural areas, the wild, even in the air and near earth orbit, can obtain powerful cloud storage and computing capabilities. Clouds are everywhere.
From the perspective of AWS, AWS has deployed a large number of cloud data center regions and access points, making cloud technology closer to customers around the world. AWS snowball was deployed to a research center in Antarctica near the volcano in Hawaii to collect Pb level data. AWS outposts extends the tentacles of cloud to customers’ local computer rooms. AWS local zones deploys selected cloud infrastructure closer to customer needs, helping customers in urban areas quickly reduce their burdensome data centers. In the kitchen, on bicycles in the gym, edge devices can be connected to each other with the help of AWS IOT greenrass. With the expansion of 5g network, operators began to deploy AWS wavelench area, so that applications on 5g terminals can give full play to the advantages of 5g network with low latency and high bandwidth. Great things happen when the farthest end of the network can connect to the cloud at high speed.
When the delay is eliminated, some operations that require very low latency, from autonomous driving to natural voice processing and translation, and active management of important infrastructure, no longer need to travel between remote corners of the earth and central servers, but can be carried out locally where the results are most needed. What was the result? As driverless cars become a reality, you can start a more natural conversation with Alexa, a smart voice assistant, making factory, residential and office space more efficient and flexible. What’s more, if you like to play games, no matter where you are, you don’t have to worry about the delay affecting the game experience. You can make the most of your game skills.
The concept of cloud extends from a central point into people’s daily life and work environment. More and more software originally running in the cloud will run around to improve people’s life, from medical care to transportation, entertainment, manufacturing, etc. In 2021, the advance of cloud toward the edge will be further accelerated.
2. The Internet of machine learning (machine learning extends from the cloud to the edge)
Data is exploding. Today, an hour produces more data than a full year of 2000. More data will be generated in the next three years than in the past 30 years. In 2020, scientific researchers, pharmaceutical companies, governments and medical institutions will shift all their resources to vaccine development, new therapies, and other means to help us fight the epidemic. Whether you are a data scientist or not, you will know something about the data growth curve. We need the ability to process massive amounts of data. The only practical way to process all this information, whether it’s medical or any other application, is to use data ingestion and aggregation tools, combined with machine learning models, to help us understand this information. Therefore, there is no doubt that machine learning has become the mainstream in 2020.
Machine learning has always been a heavy workload, which can only run on the most powerful hardware. But as software and chip technology advances, things are changing. Through the combination of AWS technologies, software and hardware can play a greater role than ever before.
As the cloud continues to move to the edge, more industries and government agencies will accelerate the adoption of machine learning next year. In the manufacturing industry, machine learning will be integrated into the production line to detect production anomalies in real time. In agriculture, machine learning can help farmers use valuable resources such as soil and water more wisely.
In regions of the world dominated by small farmers, such as Southeast Asia and Africa as a whole, the application of machine learning models to new application areas and the collection of data in more marginal areas will bring about revolutionary changes, which will help farmers improve their harvests and help them raise their prices.
Werner said he had visited an AWS client called Hara in Southeast Asia. Hara, based in Jakarta, Indonesia, uses machine learning to analyze data from thousands of small farmers in Southeast Asia. Data are collected in the field by personnel and equipment, including the seasonal growth cycle of the farm, how much input is needed to grow crops, and how much income can be derived from it. This analysis is helpful for farmers to obtain reasonable credit. With the global outbreak of the new epidemic, Hara is using its platform to identify the places and people who need food most, match them with farmers who own food, and find out the best logistics mode between them. The new outbreak poses tough problems for humans, but technology can help solve them.
As machine learning continues to expand, machine to machine connections will grow explosively. According to Cisco’s annual internet report, in 2018, only 33% of Internet connections were machine to machine connections. If you have an echo smart home product, or you’re looking at the rapid growth of the automotive industry, you should already see what’s going on, and there’s a proliferation of sensors and devices connecting to the cloud. Werner predicts that by 2021, the proportion will exceed 50%.
With the increase of machine to machine connection, more data is injected into machine learning model, and more customized chips for machine learning will appear. With AWS inferrentia, machine learning costs can be reduced in terms of power and computing. With the continuous reduction of cost and improvement of performance, more and more machine learning application scenarios perform operations at the edge and establish new models at the edge. This is a disruptive innovation for applications that require low latency.
A real example is the wildfires that swept through the Australian jungle or the west coast of the United States this year. In the future, machine learning models running on edge devices can help people, according to the historical fire situation, simulate the current situation on the ground every second, and predict the fire risk without returning to the central data center. The data generated by edge devices can help disaster relief agencies prevent and extinguish fires, and let us see a more accurate and faster version of “today’s fire risk” tips around the world.
As mentioned above, machine learning is applied in the field of health care to provide food for the people most in need and to cope with the impact of climate change such as wildfires. Technology, experts and decision makers and communities can work together to have a positive impact on the world around them.
3. In 2021, images, video and audio will be expressed more than words
A few years ago, in an article in Wired magazine, Werner talked about the rapid rise of voice controlled computing, the emerging user interface, which allows people to communicate with machines and people in a more natural way. In 2021 and beyond, Werner believes that keyboards will continue to decline and be phased out in a gradual manner.
Over the past year, global epidemics have isolated people from the outside world, increasingly communicating through audio, video and images. As people use more multimedia to communicate, the amount of text produced on the screen is relatively reduced. On twitter, an average of 80% of messages a day contain images or videos, or just images or videos. This summer, twitter further clarified the trend by launching audio tweets for IOS users. The rapid cost reduction and the ability to store data in the cloud have played a certain role in promoting this trend.
Enterprises should keep in touch with customers and be keenly aware of the changes in these habits. Customers will no longer rely on keyboard, mouse or other mechanical means to interact with products and services of enterprises. So companies should explore moving from keyboards to more natural user interfaces. Alexa allows customers to do Amazon shopping by voice, and its application is exciting.
The shift to a more natural way of communication also makes access to services and information more equitable. For those who have never learned to read and write, sound may be the only way they get information. In Ghana, for example, cow cube distributes vaccines, feed and veterinarians to herdsmen through simple voice commands. Disabled people who can’t operate the touch pad or keyboard can voice, let the screen display photos of last summer, order from nearby restaurants, or have smart speakers call their children.
In addition, all video, audio, and images from twitter and elsewhere will become data sources, providing new insights and producing new products and services. Take music, for example, as people transition to digital music, audio has become a source of data analysis, which can not only play songs you like, but also help you track trends and discover new artists; combine music, genre and artist’s history to match music to emotions, speech clips, or locations.
In 2021 and beyond, the use of audio, video and images will continue to replace text in all areas from social platforms to business operations, and cloud technology will play an important role in meeting this demand.
4. Technology will change the real world just as it will change the digital world
In 2020, people break into social isolation. Isolation gives people the opportunity to examine and rethink how our city works, how it breathes, how it flows. Many of the places where we live and work are based on decades of assumptions (or hundreds of years old, depending on where you live), which are no longer true or underperforming in this global epidemic.
With the help of advanced data analysis, in 2021, people will begin to think about how to better design cities that are socially isolated without feeling distant from each other. It’s going to be a real convergence of the digital and physical worlds.
For example, using advanced data analysis technology and machine learning, cities can analyze the flow of people, understand how pedestrians move under different circumstances, how to enter stadiums, grocery stores and subway stations. For many years, shopping malls have been using this technology to analyze the flow of people at specific times, allowing people to pass advertisements or promotional signs at the best of times. By adding machine learning models, we can predict bottlenecks and dangerous points before they appear.
We can predict hourly pedestrian flow and provide advice on safe commuting during the summer tourist season or winter flu season. Imagine that in a museum, with the help of these technologies, we can quickly know how to place art works, better design the toilet entrance and exit, prevent people from colliding with each other, and keep a safe social distance.
Another big shift in the real world will be in finance, where the cash in people’s pockets is rapidly disappearing. One of the biggest changes brought about by the new outbreak is the rise of cashless payments. Some bars and restaurants around the world began to ban cash. New online payment platforms are emerging, and their business is built on the cloud. Take blockchain as an example, the underlying encryption and ledger system (blockchain is a decentralized electronic ledger system) is based on the cloud. There will be more and more such payment options, and the world will further accelerate the adoption of digital technology to replace the old, centuries old payment methods.
5. Distance learning makes a place in education
In the past few years, fundamental changes have taken place in almost every industry, with the exception of education. Most educational institutions still operate in the same way as when I went to school many, many years ago. However, with the emergence of online courses such as coursera or online service chegg, and some slow changes in the way of education are taking place, the new crown epidemic has brought about a rapid and irreversible reshaping of the education sector, more than any other industry.
Werner said he recently talked to some high school students in Warsaw, Poland, who were using the social learning website brainly to complete school work and help each other through online classes. Desperate parents in the epidemic want to make sure their children are really learning in the new distance education environment. As a result, online learning tools like brainly have emerged and exploded.
During the outbreak, technology played a huge role in children’s education. Next year, when people have verified the effectiveness of distance learning, and it may be a better choice for some people, distance learning will play a more active and lasting role in education.
Another good example is the project by Kimberly Bryant, founder of the black girl code (BGC). Like all educators, Kimberly can only offer computer science courses online for girls aged 7-17 during the outbreak. In the past, the BGC classroom could enroll about 5500 students a year, but in just one month this spring, the number of students reached almost half of the annual number, with girls from all over the world. Kimberly said that BGC will no longer be a face-to-face teaching method. She has seen the scale she can reach and that she can help more girls from all over the world.
This year’s pandemic and other obvious changes have forced people to adapt. But the significance of online courses is not only reflected in the global health crisis. The choice of Distance Education (and work) at any time means that children can stay at home and attend classes when they are sick and will not lag behind their classmates. If there is no school at all, as long as the Internet is available, at least some form of education is possible.
There is no doubt that children should be sent back to the classroom for face-to-face communication, but other events may interfere. The distance classroom can make the teaching system and students of the school flexibly respond to various emergencies, whether in the event of epidemic, natural disasters or man-made disasters, can ensure that learning is not interrupted.
6. Small businesses compete for the cloud, Southeast Asia and sub Saharan Africa will become the leaders
In 2021 and beyond, a big change is that small businesses start to use advanced cloud technology to serve customers. A large number of excellent technology and service providers will emerge to serve these small businesses. Technology will help small businesses do everything from starting a chat robot to answering common questions to getting an ultra simple CRM system up and running in minutes. Small businesses can have the benefits of complex architectures and applications without having to invest time and money to build them.
This comes from the ubiquity of the cloud. Over the past year, most small businesses have experienced that, in many cases, the ability to leverage technology determines the survival of an enterprise. Few people know that only 47% of small and medium-sized enterprises in the United States have their own websites, which is expected to increase in 2021. Globally, Southeast Asian countries such as Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam, as well as Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa in Africa, are expected to lead the trend.
Before 2020, Werner spent a lot of time talking to customers around the world, listening to their stories of using technology to overcome challenges. In these areas, he saw the great potential of SMEs and was inspired by their stories. In sub Saharan Africa, 90% of companies are small businesses, accounting for 40% of GDP, and the total economy is 700 billion US dollars. In some important industries of Southeast Asian countries, small and micro enterprises account for 99%, mainly in tourism and handicraft industry. At present, the online penetration rate of these countries has ranked the top in the world. Even if the surrounding world is suspended, these small and micro enterprises can still trade with the outside world through the Internet.
Take warung Pintar in Indonesia as an example. The company connects food stores through the cloud, combining technical services with small businesses. In Indonesia, Southeast Asia and other parts of the world, street snack stands and small grocery stores can be found everywhere. They are usually operated by themselves, where they can buy cold drinks, snacks and recharge their mobile phones. Warung Pintar stores provide all of these functions, but these stores and their operations are connected to the cloud. Warung Pintar’s small store operators can realize inventory management and tracking, sales analysis, cashless payment, WiFi connection and so on through a small bright yellow box. In the past, the business of these small shops only depended on the flow of people on the roadside. Now the owners of small shops can start to understand and cultivate their customers. In the past, their stock and purchase were mainly based on intuition. Now they can analyze and understand what is the most profitable and what goods are just occupied.
As these small businesses bring their unique practices and products to the world, they are likely to break many of the business practices of developed countries. They have neither the burden of traditional technology nor the fetters of inherent ideas, so the development space is vast and infinite.
7. In 2021, quantum computing will flourish
In the past, it has been proved time and again that once the most advanced and complex technologies are popularized and made affordable, usable and understandable to the public, great changes will occur.
At the 2019 re: invent conference, AWS released Amazon braket, a fully hosted quantum computing service, to help researchers and developers accelerate research and discover the potential of quantum computing. In 2020, AWS opened the service to everyone. Before Amazon braket, only the world’s top research institutions or the most economically powerful companies could use quantum computing hardware. Now, anyone can use quantum machines for as low as $0.30.
There is no doubt that this esoteric method of calculation is still in its infancy, but that is braket’s point. In the exploration period, it is particularly important to let as many people as possible get involved in the field of quantum computing. As enterprises and institutions begin to try quantum technology initially, this kind of professional knowledge begins to go out of the academic circle. Various business plans, products and services around the future of quantum will emerge one after another. This is also the way for braket to move from laboratory to application. As we have seen in the development of machine learning, when the software ecosystem can really serve the hardware, thousands of applications will appear.
In the next decade or so, quantum computing will change many fields, such as chemical engineering, materials science, drug discovery, portfolio optimization, machine learning, etc., but these changes can only be realized when more and more people begin to imagine this future road now. Given that AWS has the experience to make advanced cloud technology affordable, accessible and understandable to all, Werner believes that 2021 will be the year when quantum computing begins to flourish.
8. In 2021, cloud technology will make the most progress in space
Werner said that in order to make science and technology realize its potential and help people all over the world live a better life, we should go all over the world and even more should go over the world.
In 2019, we launched the AWS ground station satellite ground station service. With this service, customers can control satellite communication, process data, and expand the scale of operation without having to worry about the construction or management of ground station infrastructure. This service has achieved great results, but we think this is only the beginning. I predict that in 2021 and beyond, space will be the area where we will make the most progress in cloud technology.
At present, satellite data access and processing technology has been used to help researchers track glacier retreat, maritime agencies protect vulnerable marine protected areas, and agronomists predict food supply more accurately. Meanwhile, some start-ups are exploring the use of space to develop a new generation of fast and secure networks. By making it affordable for every developer to access space, I look forward to seeing these innovations come true and help everyone grow and succeed. More reading: the Shanghai station of AWS technology summit will be launched in 2018, with more than 50 technical forums and more than 6000 professionals attending. Gartner’s latest report suggests that corporate customers learn from Amazon’s digital model. AWS announces Amazon braket quantum computing service is going online. Amazon re: invest 2020 observation 1: cloud database challenges traditional IT system Amazon sagemaker’s 40 million daily tom cat game family uses AWS cloud services to create “insensible” user experience. AWS China releases financial management services to enable customers to use cloud services more economically and efficiently. Amazon cloud services (AWS) and formula 1 jointly announced In the performance statistics of six new racing cars in 2020 season, kechuangda and Amazon cloud service (AWS) accelerate the AI deployment of intelligent industry, fully integrate the ADC system of Amazon sagemaker AWS Zhang Xia: tensorflow 85% of the global load is developed on the AWS platform, and the cost can be reduced by 54%. AWS announced that it has launched a new region in Hong Kong, and has provided 64 in 21 regions of the world AWS announced the opening of three Amazon cloudfront sites operated by Xi’an cloud data. Amazon sagemaker launched the machine learning service of Amazon cloud service (AWS). BMW group of China and AWS jointly expanded the circle of machine learning with Amazon cloud service (AWS) in data driven automobile industry to reach every AI worker
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Promoting a culture of quality in local manufacturing
Aramco recognizes large, medium, and small manufacturers at fourth Local Manufacturers Quality Excellence Awards.
Aramco recently recognized a number of local manufacturers — who demonstrated a strong commitment to supply high quality products — during the 2021 Local Manufacturers Quality Excellence Awards ceremony, held at the Plaza Conference Center on Dec. 23.
In its fourth consecutive year, the awards are part of Aramco’s efforts to promote a quality-focused culture within the Saudi manufacturing industry that elevates the performance of local manufacturers allowing them to compete in regional and international markets.
Every year, the event conducted by Aramco’s Engineering Services (ES) raises the bar for local manufacturers to:
- Attain an excellent service provision
- Optimize a significant level of Saudization
- Demonstrate a reliable supply chain; not only for the Kingdom, but also for the entire region under the slogan of “Saudi Made.”
A platform to showcase quality
This annual event has become a platform to showcase best-in-class quality management practices of our local manufacturers to exchange expertise and explore additional collaboration opportunities toward effective partnerships.
Aramco appreciates the local manufacturers’ success in demonstrating resilience by maintaining a high-level of quality despite the ongoing pandemic.
— Motaz A. Al-Mashouk, ES executive director
During the closing remarks, acting chief engineer Khalid Y. Qahtani commended local manufacturer’s contribution in the supply chain management system saying: “For decades, our local business partners successfully served our need to supply a substantial amount of materials and equipment that meet our quality standards. This enabled Aramco to be a reliable source for energy and chemicals.”
In this year’s awards ceremony, Aramco honored 13 high performing local manufacturers in terms of quality under three different categories:
- Large Manufacturers Category (five winners)
- Small and Medium Manufacturers Category (five winners)
- Best Improved Quality Performance Category (three winners).
The recognized manufacturers are:
1. Aasia Steel Factory Number Two
2. Al-Qahtani Pipe Coating Industries
3. Arcelormittal Tubular Products
4. Saudi Steel Pipe Company Limited
5. Saudi Modern Company for Cable
Small and Medium Manufacturers
1. Erne Fittings Middle East Co.
2. Specialized Oil and Gas Engineering
3. Yokogawa Saudi Arabia Company
4. Factory of GE Oil and Gas Pressure
5. Teco Middle East Electrical.
Best Improved Quality Performance
Abahsain Neway Industrial Co. Ltd.
Al-Zamil Company for Heavy Steel
Eastern Morris Cranes Co.

domain: news


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It was a landmark year for the identity industry in 2017. Driven by a series of high-profile news events, the importance of identity was catapulted to the forefront. The Equifax data breach illustrated the importance of data privacy, while the success of bitcoin, highlighted the excitement around decentralization. As such, consumers, regulators, and private industries alike have begun to realize there is tremendous value in understanding identity as a concept, the importance of identity, and how it can be leveraged to improve everything from an individual’s daily routine to corporate business strategies.
This shift in focus sparked an incredible amount of growth across the industry. Over the past year we have witnessed a bevy of new startups be created to help solve the challenges of identity of things (IDoT), regulatory concerns, personal fitness, and many others. Established legacy firms are also racing to understand how they can better protect the data of the consumers while also trying to realize new opportunities with the identity data they already have.
On the heels of this monumental shift in the identity space, OWI has created the second edition of its market defining Identity Industry Landscape. Last year’s inaugural landscape featured 230 companies across 13 industry verticals. A year later, our 2018 OWI Identity Industry Landscape contains 755 companies across 3 segments, 22 categories, and 46 sub-categories.
OWI’s 2018 identity landscape contains 755 companies across 3 segments, 22 categories, and 46 sub-categories.
Prompted by drastic changes in scope and scale, the second OWI Identity Industry Landscape reflects a quickly growing and evolving market segment. To reflect on the industry changing events of 2017, OWI offers its list of the top events affecting the development of the identity landscape over the past year:
The top identity moments of 2017
- Equifax and Alteryx data breaches: In 2017 over 270 million data points of personal information were exposed: 145.5 million people through Equifax and over 123 million American households through Alteryx. For many consumers, these events exposed the potential dangers of sharing personal data online.
- General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) preparation: GDPR is essentially a massive overhaul to the data privacy laws in the European Union which places a great amount of onus on private companies to responsibly process and maintain the data of their consumers. This bill was passed on April 14, 2016 and is due to go into effect on May 25, 2018, making 2017 the year to prepare. This frantic sprawl to overhaul internal processes to stay compliant sparked many conversations regarding best practices over data privacy.
- U.S. presidential election and the power of social media: In review of the 2016 U.S. presidential election it became clear Russian entities purchased over 3,000 Facebook ads targeted at specific groups to drive further tension among racial issues in the United States. Facebook was able to collect data on its’ users, group them based on characteristics, and sell ads on their ability to target a specific market segment with incredible accuracy. Not only did Facebook’s business case for collecting its users’ data become clear but the potential dangers of grouping people based on similar identity characteristics was exposed.
- Bitcoin and decentralization: On January 16th 2017, the price of bitcoin, built on the blockchain, was on average $830.26. By December 16th, 2017 that price had soared to $19,343. In 2017, we saw an explosion in hype and excitement around blockchain and its potential to power aspects of a decentralized economy disparate from any centralized authority. Consumers are not only excited by bitcoin itself, but what its success means for other potential use cases such as IDoT and distributed ledgers around identity.
- Aadhaar and Estonia ID: State sponsored identity schemes have gained more traction over the past year. Long has India’s Aadhaar stood as the premier use case for a proven national identity schemes with over 99% of adults enrolled in the program. In 2017, Estonia launched a state sponsored e-identity program where anyone in the world could enroll online to become an Estonia citizen. This new program offers citizens an efficient mode of authentication for a variety of benefits and services across the economy. Moreover, on the heels of Brexit, Estonia’s eID program is a new vector for entities to continue leveraging the economic benefits of being a citizen of the EU.
- Identity of Things (IDoT): As IDoT continues to drastically expand, there still remains uncertainty around the viability of existing cybersecurity measures to protect the transfer of data from network nodes to central servers. With the explosive adoption of blockchain as a potential solution to this concern, many are expecting to see an even higher rate of adoption as companies such as Filament! begin to successfully leverage existing blockchain networks to securely verify and authenticate the identity and addresses of network nodes. As companies begin to solve this security concern, we will start to realize the true benefits of IDoT.
- Apple Face ID: This year Apple announced the release of the iPhone X which features Face ID – a new authentication paradigm which unlocks the phone with the user’s facial biometrics. This is not a new technology, but Apple’s endorsement drastically increases its visibility as a mainstream medium of authorization and makes fingerprint authentication appear antiquated.
- National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) 800-60-3: In June 2017, NIST 800-63, new authentication standards and recommendations, were published. These new standards created a clear delineation between Identity, Authentication, and Federation. In these categories companies have the option to select from varying options of authentication techniques depending on their needs and current business structure. It also asserted that SMS is no longer an officially recommended mechanism for multi-factor authentication. And lastly, companies are required to detail requirements for account recovery in case of theft from an authenticator. Overall the new standards embrace the complexity of the identity issues and empower federal agencies to be more flexible with their design and operation.
Clearly this was a busy year for identity and the increase of attention caused by national news coverage caused people to take notice. This new consumer perspective served as a catalyst for a great deal of change within the industry. During the creation of the landscape we noticed three major developmental trends in 2017:
- Silos beginning to break down
- The API-ification of everything
- Self-sovereign identity
Silos are breaking down.
Historically, identity has developed in silos across industries or even within individual companies. For example, customer leads are traditionally handled by the sales team. If the customer signs the contract then their data is passed over to the data management team who is responsible for cataloging the information and making it available for product managers, customer service, and technology support to make decisions to support the user. However, this process is slow, can cause poor data integrity, is expensive, and ultimately provides the consumer with a poor experience.
As a result, Customer Identity Access Management (CIAM), was created as a solution for companies to make real-time decisions off of their consumers’ data to offer a fully immersive and interactive experience. Companies such as Janrain, Forgerock, and LoginRadius have gained incredible traction in the space by showing the value of being able to know your customers identity, and leveraging that data to offer a tailored, consistent, and seamless experience across a variety of platforms. The success of this horizontal integration came to a climax when SAP bought GIGYA for $350 million USD in September, 2017.
In addition to silos being broken down horizontally, we are also seeing a great deal of vertical integration. Companies such as CrossVerify, Biocryptology, and Daon are authentication companies who have vertically integrated their stack and offer proprietary hardware or software, white label solutions, and consumer facing applications. These companies have acknowledged the growing demand for solutions at every step of the identity life cycle and are vertically integrating in response. As happy as we are for companies like those detailed above and many others, these industry developments made it hard to categorize them into segments.
The API-ification of everything.
Globally, banks possess large caches of personal data attributes which have been identified as an excellent source of record to authenticate consumers. As a result, there has been a global push for banks to open their APIs to allow other companies to prevent and reduce fraud risk of consumers with which they transact. To that end, there have been several successful examples of this being done. For example, the SecureKey concierge service in Canada illustrates how open bank APIs can be used to securely authenticate consumers without exposing their data. Even in Norway, Zignsec has used the open API laws to provide merchants with a way to verify consumers before transacting with them.
There has been a global push for banks to open their APIs to allow other companies to prevent and reduce fraud risk of consumers with which they transact.
Additionally, PSD2, the financial services reform act that is due to go in effect in December of this year will force banks in the United Kingdom to open their APIs to the public. With all these global success stories, and even laws being passed in the U.K. there is mounting pressure for banks to open their APIs in the United States. Either the banks move first to monetize on the data they currently own, or they can wait to see if the government forces them to open it for free.
Another major development over the past year was the rise of self-sovereign identity solutions as more people want to own their personal data. This demand is driven from concerns drawn from the Equifax news or even Facebook’s use of consumer data. As such, companies such as Yoti and uPort have developed applications that empower consumers to securely store their data, decide what data they would like to share with decentralized apps, and even digitally sign contracts. These solutions are part of a much larger push to restore control of a user’s data to the user without the need of a centralized authority. The development of new technologies, such as blockchain, have made these solutions possible.
After analyzing the industry, the growing amount of companies and what they are looking to accomplish, OWI expects even bigger things in 2018. First and foremost, we believe that identity silos will continue to be broken down, through both horizontal and vertical integration. Second, we believe that with a focus on endpoint security IDoT will continue to experience rapid growth, especially in respect to smart cities and resource management. And lastly, trust and safety will make its way to the fore. Consumers have seen the growing importance of data privacy and they must be able to trust and feel safe with the companies they are interacting with online to protect their data and use it only to the extent they agreed to.
As bright as the future appears to be, we believe it is important to take a moment and appreciate how far the identity industry has grown over the past year. An increase in national news coverage has caused consumers to care, and as such, both the market and government have responded to the concerns, ultimately driving identity into the mainstream.
For more, please see the 2018 OWI Industry Landscape.


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A new Gartner report predicts an increase in human-centric technologies like the Internet of Things (IoT), 4D-printing and connected devices and self-healing systems.
Blockchain and IoT platforms have crossed the peak in growth and will likely reach maturity in the next 5-10 years. There’s no questioning, says Xin Song of Bottos, that we are in the age of the Internet of Things.
Both consumers and businesses are fascinated by IoT products on the market. These products have sensors that allow for quick communication over the Internet, with other devices or with the Cloud. In just a few short years, these products have become standard, and the expectations for these products will only continue to rise.
As these technologies advance, one of the biggest obstacles to innovation is data. The cost to access and utilise data is surmountable – and for smaller start-ups, can be a huge barrier to entry.
A handful of companies are creating decentralised public blockchains for AI and IoT that include DApps that serve as global data marketplaces. These marketplaces will bring together data providers, data requesters and data service providers. Companies can post requests for data or offer their own datasets. A token-based economy and smart contracts make transactions simple and fast.
Utilising a centralised model to scale up IoT solutions can be cost-prohibitive. Centralised clouds, server farms and networking equipment can be extremely expensive. By some estimates, a decentralised P2P marketplace can reduce data costs by as much as 30%. These marketplaces are growing IoT as they are increasing the availability of needed data.
Key technologies like speech recognition, video analytics and facial recognition also play a role in the acceleration of IoT. These tools are creating new IoT applications – for example, researchers can watch shoppers browse the aisles of a store and look through merchandise, then evaluate customer demographics and patterns.
Given the hype around new technologies and new possibilities within IoT, the adoption of IoT is slower than expected. Why is this so?
IoT integrations take work, and it’s not easy to understand the mind of a consumer. Some are willing to spend hundreds of dollars on the newest Alexa but won’t spend a penny on a smart lightbulb. Unsurprisingly, the giant tech companies that make adoption of IoT easy are the ones who have no issue selling their products. For IoT adoption to increase, companies need to understand the market needs that can be solved with the Internet of Things.
According to a recent Bain & Company report, 45% of Internet of Things buyers say, “concerns about security remain a significant barrier and are hindering the adoption of IoT devices.” A solution every company should consider for their IoT projects is blockchain technology. Blockchain provides immutability, decentralisation and transparent data sharing, an advantage for those looking for a cyber security solution.
Utilising blockchain technology also helps from an operational standpoint. It improves the management and sharing of computing resources. With IoT, it is necessary to equip discrete computing resources, such as edge computing and fog computing, with more extensive and reliable management networks. Blockchain can create a shared, transparent, tradable computing environment to organise these resources.
Gartner expects to see 20 billion internet-connected things by 2020. By then, IoT will have had a huge impact on the global economy. Now, the industry’s focus needs to move to IoT adoption. If IoT adoption cannot match the pace of its growth, many companies will be left behind.
The author of this blog is Xin Song, the co-founder and CEO of Bottos, a public blockchain for AI and IoT.
About the author
Xin works with the Bottos team to drive innovation in artificial intelligence, ultimately creating a new decentralised AI ecosystem. He has 13 years of experience in investment, strategy and restructuring of enterprise digitisation.


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Since the “flash crisis” (starting from the summer of 2013) a lot of game developers have collided with an issue of being crammed with outdated flash games with copyrights sold to various sponsors and game portals. For the majority of the developers porting their old games to the new platforms could be an ideal option.… Continue reading Re-Monetizing an Old Game: Porting Flash Games to HTML5
Smart phones are already changing many markets in the IT industry. Mobile gaming represents one of the fastest growing segments of the digital games market, and potential for future growth remains strong as more consumers are using smartphones for games of all types, including the increasingly popular mobile game apps. Is the mobile gaming industry… Continue reading Will cheap mobile games kill the gaming industry?
The mobile gaming industry is booming; last year alone it made an estimated $800 million. People are buying games and applications on every available device including iOS devices, Smartphones, tablet PCs and more. It’s come to the point where the mobile gaming industry is actually pulling players and revenue from the traditional gaming market. The… Continue reading It’s time to take mobile gaming seriously


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Langford Lakes Christmas Tree Farm’s special Christmas shop will be officially opened by Taunton Mayor, Vivienne Stock-Williams at 11am on Saturday 19 November and will be helping to raise funds for charity.
Reg Hendy, owner of Langford Lakes at Middle Hill Farm, Langford Budville, explained: “The Mayor has very kindly agreed to declare us officially open for the festive season and to unveil our Christmas shop, which is grander than ever for 2016, and she’ll be assisting Father Christmas with the ribbon cutting.”
“We’re hoping to collect as much money as possible for Children’s Hospice South West (CHSW) from the sale of mince pies, teas and coffees – aided by local volunteers for the charity – from our launch event through to our last day of trading before Christmas on December 23. Last year we raised £2,000 for the organisation. We’d like to invite everyone to the launch event with the Mayor, an ardent supporter of CHSW, and Father Christmas on November 19. The fun starts at 9am but an official ribbon-cutting event will take place at 11am.”
CHSW is currently the only provider of specialist hospice care for children in the region. It offers much-needed support for youngsters with a life-limiting or life-threatening condition and their families at its three hospices – Charlton Farm in North Somerset, Little Bridge House in North Devon and Little Harbour in Cornwall.
The Christmas Tree Farm is offering customers free advice on selecting and caring for fresh Christmas trees. Reg Hendy said: “Our expert team will be available from Friday November 18 until Friday December 23 to offer people tips on what type of tree to pick and then how to look after it so that it lasts well into the New Year. Our team can also advise on decorating trees and we have a Christmas shop on-site too. We’ve lots of tips to help customers decorate their homes this festive season.


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Czechs presented a cosmetic mask on NanoDay that removes up to 75% of wrinkels
Prague, May 28, 2016. On NanoDay there were presented two revolutionary innovations, luxury car modified by nanotechnology and nano cosmetic mask that can reduce wrinkles under eyes within 30 minutes. “We found that the nanofiber membrane has a really fundamental effect on the skin and its appearance. Clinical study results have confirmed that there is a reduction up to 75% of the wrinkles including the deepest ones, “says Lenka Mynářová from Nafigate Cosmetics.
“The purpose of our Nanodays is to show the people what we do best in the Czech Republic,” explains Jiří Kůs chairman of Czech Nanotechnology Industries Association, Czech Republic has become nanotechnology superpower during the last ten years.
Czechs constructed the world’s safest battery
NanoDay visitors tasted for example the water filtered in front of them through nanofilters out of the Vltava river by VTI in cooperation with Pardam. They could also see functional clothing with nanosilver or nanocotton anti-allergy bedding . Cluster Nanoprogress in cooperation with the Technical University in Liberec were demonstrating nanofiber production and some even tried it themselves.
All day visitors asked leading Czech nanotechnologists, for example, the inventor of revolutionary 3D battery Jan Prochazka who is nicknamed Czech Elon Musk. “Thanks to the separator from inorganic nanofiber, it is the safest battery in the world,” explains Jan Buk from the company Pardam.
We are a small country, such a nano one, but we are a nanosuperman at the same time
Czech Republic thanks to the success of Czech scientists in nanotechnologies may become an important global player in the future. “One of the drivers of the new industrial revolution and of the fundamental economy and society transformation in the 21st century is nanotechnology,” says Kůs. “It is the ability of the man to work with matter at the level of molecules and atoms, and literally alter its essence, the ability to create materials with new extraordinary features. Czech Republic is one of the world incubators of nanotechnology, We are a small country, such a nano one, but we are a nanosuperman at the same time “.
NanoDay took place on Cargo Gallery ship at Rašínovo embankment in Prague as a part of the Innovation Week 2016.
Published: 31.5.2016, Author: nanoasociace


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IJS Global opens new Zurich office
The branch is headed up by Katharina Tyrakowski, who has moved from her role as customer services manager, Pharma, at the forwarder’s office in Frankfurt, Germany.
June 5, 2015
By PLA Editor
Air & Cargo Services air cargo Air Cargo Asia air cargo freight Air Forwarding air freight Air Freight Asia Air Freight Logistics air freighter air freighting Air Logistics Asia Air Shipping Asia airlines cargo airways cargo asia cargo news cargo aviation Gary Roche healthcare IJS Global Katharina Tyrakowski life science pharma Switzerland TCS Zurich
Supply chain solutions provider IJS Global has opened a new office at Zurich Airport in Switzerland. The branch is headed up by Katharina Tyrakowski, who has moved from her role as customer services manager, Pharma, at the forwarder’s office in Frankfurt, Germany.
Gary Roche, CEO, Europe Middle East Africa (EMEA), IJS Global, said: “We are committed to delivering real-time solutions for clients globally. The new Swiss office will be supporting our key customers in healthcare, life sciences, and other customers in the region, and will enable us to further develop our time critical solutions (TCS) product.
“Katharina brings both experience of the pharma sector, and a strong commitment to customer care, and we are very pleased to welcome her to the newly-created role of general manager, Switzerland.”
The new Swiss branch opened at the beginning of this month, bringing to 41 the number of IJS Global offices across the Americas, Australasia, and EMEA.
IJS Global recently opened a 24-hour pharma warehouse facility at Frankfurt Airport in Germany, and has launched the new TCS product to add to its growing portfolio of logistics solutions.


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ISLAMABAD, Feb 12 (APP):The upcoming visit by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to Pakistan would have positive impact on economy of Pakistan, said Pakistan Furniture Council (PFC) Chief Executive Mian Kashif Ashfaq.
In a press statement issued here, while presiding over a meeting of PFC Board of Directors, he stressed the need for enhancing bilateral economic ties and trade relations between the two brotherly Islamic countries besides improving the same with other Gulf states.
He said a record investment package being prepared by Riyadh for Islamabad was likely to provide relief and would also provide huge opportunity to business community to attain maximal benefits from this deal.
He further said this tour would help forge unity among Muslim Ummah, which is an urgent need of the hour for boosting mutual trade among Muslim states to cope with global economic challenges effectively.
He appreciated Prime Minister Imran Khan for deciding to play active role for revival of the economy and started inviting foreign investors and buyers and to boost the volume of the exports.
Kashif said PFC would play its role for boosting local furniture sector and in this regard, it would dispatch delegations to Saudi Arabia and Gulf states to explore new vistas of trade in furniture industry and invite furniture makers and investors to visit Pakistan and invest in Pakistani furniture sector to earn billions of rupees as there is huge scope and ample opportunities in this sector for investment.
He said Saudi Arabia would provide opportunities for Pakistani furniture producers after UAE as there was great potential of expanding furniture trade as Pakistani handmade traditional furniture is at higher demands in international markets.
He further said they would also hold meetings with their counterparts in Saudi Arabia to chalk out a combined business strategy to enhance trade between both the countries.
PFC chief underscored that there should be regular exchange of meetings between the investors and businessmen of the both countries.
It would open up new avenues of investment and will further boost the relations between the two countries, he said.


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If you saw the Search Engine Land report last month, Google is going to sunset some reports within the Google Search Console. The company announced that many of these reports will redirect from the old to the new Google Search Console on December 13.
Google wants to reduce duplication efforts of maintaining to similar reports, since having the old and new Google Search Console is redundant. Basically, we’ll see the Search Analytics, Links to Your Site, Internal Links, Manual Actions, Mobile Usability and Index Status reports redirected to the new Google Search Console equivalents.
There are two notices when you visit one of the old reports. One in red at the top of other page, and a pop up in the middle of the page.
Currently, Google is only removing reports that have replacements in the new version of the Google Search Console. This means that, in some cases, you’ll have to learn how to use a new report or change your day-to-day routine and use the new report over the old one. According to Google, you should be able to get the data you want from the new reports.
Just make sure this happens by December 13.


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Asia Gaming Summit 2019 bears an increasingly vital look due to current events.
The third edition of AGS takes place from 5-7 November in Taipei Taiwan at the Taipei W.
The Summit is set to explore regional regulatory updates, innovation in payment and technology, and best practices for setting up operations and office in Taiwan.
AGS attendees will hear about the latest trends in the market through insights from leading regional gaming experts while meeting and networking with professional stakeholders ranging from online and land-based operators to government officials to game providers to payment companies and more.
Some AGS Speakers
Industry leaders confirmed for attendance include Lin and Partners MD George Lin; Principal Consultant for 1710 Gaming Christina Thankor-Rankin; Sportradar Managing Director Michael Maerz; Bitwork Co-founder Bryan Wu; Join Law Managing Partner Calvin Yang, with the full list of many more available at the AGS official website.
What is Really Happening in Asia?
Beyond the additional networking functions and opportunities; in-depth industry round-tables; networking cocktail reception; poker tournament; and other unique mixers, the star topic of the conference has to be the current Asia gaming landscape.
China Pressures Neighbours
A new push from kingpin China to shutter gambling in neighbouring countries has overflowed into Cambodia, where the regulated online gambling industry has been shut down by the Cambodian government and Prime Minister Hun Sen announced a ban all new online gambling licenses in the country; and into the Philippines, where new Pogo licenses have been suspended by the government despite the disagreement of President Duterte.
AGS to Make Sense
AGS is set to make sense of developments, and give regional stakeholders an accurate picture of how they can continue to expand in the region, within a stable market.
E-Sports Forum Co-Occurring
The event will be further enhanced by the co-location of the Asia e-sports Forum; offering game developers, e-sports leagues, traditional sports leagues, broadcast distributors, brands and advertiser, technology companies, marketing agencies, gaming consultants, and casino operators the opportunity to monetize their complementary skills and products.
With still ample time to arrange the trip, turning the uncertainty in Asia into a practical strategy for a highly liquid region is an opportunity that cannot be undervalued nor overlooked at upcoming AGS 2019.


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There are a few surprises in the Covid-19 alert Level 2 rules that were gazetted by Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (Cogta) Minister, Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, on Monday.
In a big win for the hospitality industry, restaurants, bars and taverns will be allowed to also sell alcohol on weekends, but for on-site consumption only, until the curfew time of 22:00.
However, bottle stores will still be restricted to selling alcohol from Monday to Thursday between 09:00 and 17:00 for off-site consumption.
Other surprises include concerts, weddings and smaller events now being allowed, though these will still be restricted to no more than 50 people. The government has previously allowed small conferences of 50 people or less under alert level 3, in addition to inter-provincial travel for businesspeople and in essential and emergency cases.
The gazetting of the new rules follows President Cyril Ramaphosa announcing on Saturday that South Africa will see an easing of Covid-19 restrictions to alert Level 2 as of Tuesday. He mentioned that inter-provincial leisure travel will be allowed for the first time since the hard lockdown in March, in addition to the lifting of the tobacco and alcohol bans.
The president also revealed that family visits would be permitted.
According to the new alert Level 2 rules, no more than 10 people are allowed to visit you at your home.
Gyms and Airbnb establishments are also now officially being allowed to operate for the first time since the hard lockdown in late March. However, like eventing venues and cinemas, gyms will also need to conform to the rule around not allowing more than 50 people in each venue at any one time.
Accredited hotels, lodges and bed & breakfast establishments have previously been allowed to accept business guests as well as leisure tourists (only within a province) under Level 3 restrictions. With the move to Level 2 and inter-provincial travel (between provinces) now being opened up, new accommodation rules stipulate that establishments cannot operate at more than 50% capacity.
Casinos have already had to operate under similar restrictions after being allowed to operate in Level 3 since July.
As mentioned by Ramaphosa on Saturday, under Level 2 restrictions international travel remains banned. In addition, spectators will not be allowed at major sports matches. Major conferences and mega events are still not permitted.
The gazetted Level 2 rules stipulate that nightclubs are still not allowed to operate, which seems to be in line with restrictions on mass gatherings.
Public parks and beaches will now also officially be opened, however, some of these have been used under fitness rules in Level 3.
Under the latest eased restrictions, the wearing of masks as well as social distancing and health protocols in public spaces remain mandatory. The curfew between 10pm and 4am also remains in place.


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Transit strike derailed local businesses big week
By Roslyn Kramer
On an unusually balmy winter Saturday, what would normally have been the very last hours of panicked Christmas gift buying were not happening. Couples strolled along Downtown streets, but lists of gift recipients did not seem to be dancing in their heads as they glanced at store windows and moved on.
The mood might have been mellow for passersby, but for store owners and clerks, it was definitely morose. It was very, very bad for us, said Roy, who didnt give his last name, amid the colorful fashion accessories, including earmuffs, at his booth at the Union Square holiday market. This market sits on a subway stop which wasnt in service because of the strike. We did a third of what we would have done. Still, he suggested he was doing better than other merchants in the mazelike market who were counting on the last week to make it work.
A few booths away Ruth Dorsla stood surrounded by her lush hand-dyed silks and cotton jackets and scarves she makes in Brooklyn. Dorsala who has sold in the holiday market the last nine years said Monday was her best day until that evening when fear that the strike would really occur started to hit shoppers. She did one-quarter of her expected business, and you cant recover, she said.
Movie theaters took a blow. Attendance was off roughly 60 percent at one nearby cinema.
Hospital waiting rooms did not seem more crowded than movie theaters. We had a full staff but no patients, said Charlie Murphy at the information desk at the New York Eye and Ear Infirmary at 14th St. and Second Ave. It was like a morgue in here.
Two venerable bookstores felt the strikes impact. Half as much sales, Nancy Bass, proprietor of the Strand Bookstore at Broadway and 12th St., stated briskly, while using the newly installed elevator, going from floor to floor to show off the stores stock of used, rare, discounted and hard-to-find books. We were so geared up for an amazing Christmas. We have a new floor for art and kids books, she said. Last Friday we had a really good day. The difference was so marked.
Things didnt look any better a few blocks away at St. Marks Bookshop. This strike hit our business big time, manager Christopher Davidson said. Business wasnt booming on Saturday, either. Maybe people are sleeping late because of all the walking in the last few days, he guessed.
You literally expect your business to be one-quarter of your sales [at Christmas], he noted. Unions are supposed to protect the working class but they should have thought it through more. Negotiations should have continued during the Christmas season, he felt, and if nothing happened, then strike, he added.
In a tortured but not unusual tale of getting to work, Ana Sgarbi, working at Private Collection on E. Ninth St., boutiqued to the hilt and definitely a shopping destination under normal circumstances, described a trek that began at 6 a.m. and included a 30-block walk to Woodside, Queens, in order to catch a train to Penn Station, where she transferred to the PATH, got off at Sixth Ave. and walked east to arrive at work by 10 a.m. She wanted to shop at Bloomingdales, but couldnt, contributing to the citywide sales decline.
At Selia Yang, a shop for bridal gowns and evening wear, it was a bummer, said Jennie, at the sales desk. Customers cancelled fittings and workers couldnt make it, so the stores studio closed.
Helaine Sorgen at Clayworks Pottery, also on Ninth St., said she relies on walk-by customers who can carry her fragile pottery home on public transportation. Gone were the customers from Brooklyn, the walk-by traffic and the matinee attendees who come Downtown for lunch, a show and shopping. Plus, foot traffic was so decreased, said Sorgen, who has been in business 32 years.
Another perspective on the business plunge was explained by K. Kesselring, manager of August, a popular Bleecker St. bistro. Because of the strike people left town much earlier, he felt, making Saturday one of our slowest days ever.
Alex, owner of The Place (actually two Places: one on W. Fourth St. and another on Christopher St.) reported losing eighty percent of our reservations for the week, which equals about $40,000. Large groups couldnt come, to say nothing of the wait staff who lost a big chunk of their income, plus had to pay extortionist cab rates to get here and then make no money. Normally this week is the busiest of the year.
Christina, a waitress at French Roast and an aspiring actress who lives in Bedford-Stuyvesant, gave another mince-no-words take on the strike: The restaurant was dead. Im broke.
Waitresses paid $60 a day to take cabs coming and going. Most of the busboys walked three hours each way, she said. But the streets were crowded with people just trying to get home.
The upside: French Roast contributed to employees transportation costs. Bigelows Pharmacy was also generous to employees, taking hotel rooms for staff who wanted to stay in the city, according to owner Ian Ginsberg.
We dropped over 60 percent during the strike, said Roy manager at BBQ restaurant at University Pl. and Eighth St.
Its 9/11 all over again, said John Kioussis, owner of Rockit Scientist Records on Eighth St. Our Christmas rush started Monday and ended Monday.
Cafe Orlin on St. Marks Pl. is a perennial favorite, but that didnt stop revenues from plunging 50 percent, said part owner Yossi Cohen. The cafe paid $400 a day for employees transportation during the strike.
Cohen was a rarity; someone who saw a cheery side to the strike. I liked the atmosphere in the city everyones stories about getting stuck, how long it took them, bicycling, getting coffee from the Red Cross walking over the bridge it was like a festival.
Or as Private Collections Sgarbi said, You connect with people; it was fun.


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Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) has been increasing its fulfillment centers at a rapid pace in the last few years
Amazon had 58 fulfillment centers in 2014. This increased to 168 in 2019. The massive growth has also increased the labor cost for the company.
Since 2014, the revenue increased by 160% while the employee headcount has increased by 320%. At the same time, Amazon has introduced a minimum wage of $15 per hour. This ends up having an adverse impact on the margins. For the past few years, we have seen a rapid increase in fulfillment and shipping expense which exceeded the sales growth. Hence, automating the fulfillment centers is an ideal goal for the company. A large chunk of future margin growth and better sentiment towards Amazon stock would depend on the automation ability of the company.
AMZN Stock Automating the Tough Jobs
The job of boxing up customer orders has until now been very difficult to automate. This job requires robots to handle the most delicate objects in a precise manner. At the same time, the sheer variety of objects is immense, which makes it difficult to create automation programs. But with the latest machines, Amazon hopes to reduce the manpower required in this job.
The investments have not been minor. At $1 million per machine, the total investment would reach over $50 million for all the fulfillment centers in the U.S.
The ability to make such a massive upfront investments gives Amazon a big lead over other retailers. Almost every other retailer aside from Walmart (NYSE: WMT ) would find it difficult to replicate such investments. The long-term result of this is that Amazon’s operational efficiency would be much higher than other peers. This will improve the moat for the company and increase the valuation multiple of Amazon stock.
This machine works five times faster than a human. This should help Amazon in reducing fulfillment time. The company has already announced the move to one-day shipping for all Prime members.
To be fair, Walmart has also announced next-day shipping. But this will only be available for 200,000 items. Amazon would be providing one-day shipping for millions of items.
A PR Problem and Margin Improvement
Automation and loss of jobs is a big issue within the entire economy. Amazon’s move to increase the pace of automation can bring a further backlash against the company. The management has already tried to downplay this initiative. It has also announced that all the workers would be provided alternative employment in other services within the company.
Although the issue is very sensitive, it is likely that we haven’t seen the end of investment in automation of fulfillment and shipping. The recent improvement in Amazon’s margins was largely due to AWS and advertising segment. But lower fulfillment and shipping costs can also help in improving margins.
In the past few quarters, the growth in shipping costs has exceeded the worldwide paid units. For example, in the latest quarter, the shipping costs increased by 21% while worldwide paid units increased by only 10%. By making these massive investments in different stages of its logistics operation, Amazon hopes to reverse this trend. The shipping cost is also massive. In the latest quarter, it was $7.32 billion. This is close to AWS revenue which was $7.5 billion and higher than advertising revenue which came at $2.7 billion.
Hence, a big chunk of future profits will depend on the ability of the company to rein in the shipping and fulfillment expenses. By making rapid investments in automation, the management can reduce its shipping costs and create a bigger moat by offering faster services. This is one of the main reasons to be bullish over the long term returns for Amazon stock.
Amazon is making a big bet on automation to reduce future operating expenses. The labor cost for the company has exceeded the revenue growth in the last five years as new fulfillment centers were opened. By automating major tasks in the fulfillment jobs, Amazon should be able to reduce its expenses and expand margins.
The big investments in automation will also reduce the shipping time. This gives Amazon a lead over other retailers. Few retailers have the resources to make this level of investment. This should cause further consolidation in the retail space, reducing the pricing pressure on Amazon.
The PR backlash can be minimal if Amazon continues to move redundant workers to jobs in other services. Investors should closely watch the growth of shipping and fulfillment expenses in the next few quarters. Reduction in these expenses should help the company in reporting better-operating profits and boosting the returns for Amazon stock.
Overall, the bias in prices is: Upwards.
The projected upper bound is: 1,964.19.
The projected lower bound is: 1,793.76.
The projected closing price is: 1,878.97.
A big black candle occurred. This is bearish, as prices closed significantly lower than they opened. If the candle appears when prices are “high,” it may be the first sign of a top. If it occurs when prices are confronting an overhead resistance area (e.g., a moving average, trendline, or price resistance level), the long black candle adds credibility to the resistance. Similarly, if the candle appears as prices break below a support area, the long black candle confirms the failure of the support area.
During the past 10 bars, there have been 7 white candles and 3 black candles for a net of 4 white candles. During the past 50 bars, there have been 24 white candles and 26 black candles for a net of 2 black candles.
Momentum is a general term used to describe the speed at which prices move over a given time period. Generally, changes in momentum tend to lead to changes in prices. This expert shows the current values of four popular momentum indicators.
One method of interpreting the Stochastic Oscillator is looking for overbought areas (above 80) and oversold areas (below 20). The Stochastic Oscillator is 38.2005. This is not an overbought or oversold reading. The last signal was a sell 7 period(s) ago.
Relative Strength Index (RSI)
The RSI shows overbought (above 70) and oversold (below 30) areas. The current value of the RSI is 53.51. This is not a topping or bottoming area. A buy or sell signal is generated when the RSI moves out of an overbought/oversold area. The last signal was a buy 15 period(s) ago.
Commodity Channel Index (CCI)
The CCI shows overbought (above 100) and oversold (below -100) areas. The current value of the CCI is 35. This is not a topping or bottoming area. The last signal was a sell 4 period(s) ago.
The Moving Average Convergence/Divergence indicator (MACD) gives signals when it crosses its 9 period signal line. The last signal was a buy 11 period(s) ago.
Rex Takasugi – TD Profile
AMAZON COM closed down -35.630 at 1,878.270. Volume was 100% below average (consolidating) and Bollinger Bands were 58% wider than normal.
Open High Low Close Volume___
Short Term: Overbought
Intermediate Term: Bullish
Long Term: Bullish
Moving Averages: 10-period 50-period 200-period
Close: 1,891.31 1,866.96 1,746.56
Volatility: 15 30 46
Volume: 2,718,443 4,169,780 5,548,761
Short-term traders should pay closer attention to buy/sell arrows while intermediate/long-term traders should place greater emphasis on the Bullish or Bearish trend reflected in the lower ribbon.
AMAZON COM is currently 7.5% above its 200-period moving average and is in an upward trend. Volatility is high as compared to the average volatility over the last 10 periods. Our volume indicators reflect volume flowing into and out of AMZN.O at a relatively equal pace (neutral). Our trend forecasting oscillators are currently bullish on AMZN.O and have had this outlook for the last 5 periods.
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Telefónica UK, the UK’s favourite network, today announces full year and fourth quarter results for the period to 31st December 2017
Full year highlights
Mark Evans CEO for Telefónica UK commented: “I’m pleased to report a strong year which has been driven by our relentless focus on delivering a differentiated customer experience. In 2017 we launched a number of new, exciting propositions, made long term commitments to our customer led sponsorships and continued to invest significant sums in our network. As a result we maintained our position as the UK mobile operator with the highest customer loyalty and satisfaction. I’d like to thank all colleagues for their hard work and support in delivering this strong performance.
Looking forward, we will continue to build for our future by doing more and investing more for the benefit of our customers. Our efforts are driven by the belief that mobile is one of the biggest opportunities this country has to strengthen its economy and support society at large. We’re proud to be its biggest champion.”
The O2 to become 5G test bed
O2 today unveiled plans to install a live 5G test bed at The O2 in North Greenwich. O2 will use the network to test a variety of equipment and potential use cases for 5G under live conditions, gathering feedback from customers and partners to ensure a future high quality service. Installation will begin next month, with visitors able to enjoy the technology from the second half of 2018. The company intends to run four separate 5G trials in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland over the next 12 months, with The O2 being at the forefront.
New, innovative propositions
Maintaining its position as the UK mobile operator with the highest loyalty and customer satisfaction*, the company launched several propositions into the market in 2017.
Building on O2’s Refresh proposition (which unlike other mobile operators ensures customers are not charged for a phone they have already paid for – a practice that can cost customers up to £38 per month according to Citizen’s Advice), the company introduced Flexible tariffs in the fourth quarter, breaking the market convention of fixed tariff plans. O2 customers buying the latest phones can choose a flexible Refresh tariff (marketed as Yo-Yo) allowing them to increase or decrease the cost of their plan every billing month, depending on how much data they anticipate using*.
With O2 research showing that half of all smartphone owners have damaged their screen at least once, the company (in the third quarter) became the first UK network to launch free screen replacement cover for customers buying the latest handsets. A next-day collection and replacement service covers those ‘Oops’ moments and ensures O2 customers are never out of touch*. Recognising the pressure on household budgets, O2 also launched Family Plan which offers up to 50% off selected Airtime Plans on O2 Refresh, when a customer or their family takes out additional connections.
O2 Priority continued to help the company differentiate in the market in 2017 with at least one Priority offer or experience taken by O2 customers every second.
The company continued to enhance the network experience for customers in 2017 and subject to confirmation from Ofcom, is confident that it has fulfilled its licence obligation to deliver 98% UK indoor population coverage and 90% geographic coverage. Earlier this month at the annual uSwitch Awards, O2 was named through a public vote as having the best network coverage. The company continued to deploy innovative small cell technology delivering targeted 4G coverage in areas including Aberdeen and London while laying the foundations for a rapid deployment of 5G connectivity when it becomes available.
Customer led sponsorships
In 2017 O2 committed to long term partnerships with both AEG (The O2) and Live Nation / Academy Music Group (for the 19 O2 Academies across the UK). Both sponsorships were extended for 10 years while providing O2 customers with access to double the number of Priority Tickets previously available. Since The O2 opened 10 years ago, over 70 million people have visited, with over 20 million tickets sold for shows ranging from music to sport to live entertainment.
Full year and fourth quarter 2017 Operating highlights
Telefónica UK’s mobile base stood at 25 million of which 12.9 million are using 4G (+7 per cent year-on-year) and driving data traffic growth (+64 per cent year-on-year).
Total accesses including customers who use the O2 network through Tesco Mobile, Sky Mobile and Lycamobile reached 32.2 million making Telefónica UK the biggest UK mobile network carrier. The company maintained its market leading position for customer loyalty with Contract churn excluding M2M at 1.0 per cent for the year and 1.0 per cent for the quarter.
Contract net additions for the full year were 266,000 (174,000 excluding M2M) with the contract customer base now accounting for 63 per cent of the total mobile base. In the fourth quarter, contract net additions were 70,000 excluding M2M. Significant B2B account wins for the year included Amey, Tesco Bank, Next, Mercedes Benz and The Home Office.
Active Prepay net losses for the year were 169,000 (25,000 for the fourth quarter).
Total Revenue for the year reached £5,728 million (+2.2 per cent year-on-year) on the back of higher handset revenues, stronger mobile service revenue trends and continuing growth in Smart Metering and ICT solution non-mobile revenues. Total Revenue for the fourth quarter reached £1,533 million (+3.2 per cent year-on-year). Mobile service revenue for the year grew +1.0 per cent year-on-year (+1.1 per cent in the fourth quarter) due to higher subscription revenues and further growth in MVNO, and despite the continuing year-on-year impact of roaming regulation.
OIBDA for the year reached £1,435 million, up 2.9 per cent year-on-year on a reported basis and +0.7 per cent year-on-year on an adjusted basis. In the fourth quarter OIBDA reached £335 million (up +3.7 per cent year-on-year on an adjusted basis*).
OIBDA margin for the full year stood at 25.1 per cent.
CapEx for the full year was £724 million (£198 million in the fourth quarter) as the company continued to enhance its network for customers and extend 4G coverage.
– ENDS –
*O2 ranked first among UK networks in the UK through The Institute of Customer Service ‘UK Customer Satisfaction Index (UKCSI) published in the third quarter 2017. The index is a national measure of customer satisfaction. It assesses over 30 measures of the customer experience in 13 sectors for over 200 organisations.
Flexible refresh tariffs available to new or upgrading customers signing up to selected devices on O2 Refresh through O2’s direct channels. Customers able to choose from selected handsets and move up and down their tariff table once in each monthly billing cycle. Includes the option of going below the tariff they originally chose.
Free screen replacement offers insurance cover for accidental screen damage. One screen replacement within the term of a contract (up to 24 months). Successful claims are redeemed with a next day courier service collecting and replacing the damaged handset. Available through O2’s direct channels for the latest handsets on selected tariffs only at the point of sale. 20GB+ on iPhone X, 8 and 8Plus. 30GB+ on Samsung Galaxy S8, S8+, Note8 and OnePlus 5. Further devices may be added in the future.
Adjusted OIBDA for full year and fourth quarter reflects a one off charge for restructuring in Q4 2016.


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We all know Pentatonix for their incredible harmony and overall a cappella genius – but they’re even more popular for their breathtaking Christmas music that was recently rolled out. To the delight of their fans all around the world, Pentatonix just released a brand new music video to their hit song “Away In A Manger.”
Settled deep in the woods, Kirstin Maldonado, Scott Hoying, Mitch Grassi and Kevin Olusola belt their lyrics into the crisp winter air. There’s no denying that this video is the perfect start to the perfect holiday season!
While everyone is thrilled about their Christmas album, Pentatonix is no stranger to wowing the music industry. In fact, the group has won a Grammy award three years in a row, as well as two YouTube Music Awards, one Streamy Award and one Shorty Award.
It’s clear their powerful musical style and positive message are things that people around the globe admire. Now they’re gearing up for another busy holiday season with their remastered 2013 album “Pentatonix Christmas Deluxe.”
The deluxe edition of their Christmas album includes such holiday classics as God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen, Up on the Housetop, Hallelujah, Deck the Halls and Away in a Manger. Pentatonix also teamed up with The Manhatten Transfer to record White Christmas for the album.


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Nintendo has announced that Yoshi’s Crafted World is heading to Nintendo Switch in Spring 2019.
Play as an adorable Yoshi traveling through a world crafted from household items like boxes and paper cups in this new Nintendo Switch platforming adventure. After traveling through a perfectly constructed stage, players can start at the goal and journey back to the start on the “flip side,” the backside of the course, to discover secrets.
Check out the Yoshi’s Crafted World Screenshots:
Check out the Yoshi’s Crafted World Trailer:


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Ms. Donatha Kajuna explaining something on IAA to the former president of the United Republic of Tanzania (URT), His Excellence Dr. Jakaya Mrisho Kikwete during the 40th International Trade Fair (Sabasaba) Exhibition in July 2016. Standing next to the former president is Dr. Mona Mwakalinga, the Director of Public Services at the University of Dar es Salaam, and Prof. Adolf Mkenda, Permernent Secretary in the Ministry of Industries and Trade, URT.
Principal College of Agricultural Sciences and Fisheries Technology, Prof. J. Machiwa visits 40th International trade fair 2016
Ms. Donatha Kajuna explaining something on IAA to the visitors during 40th International trade fair 2016.
Sabasaba visitors listening to Ms. Donatha Kajuna (left) during the 40th International trade fair 2016
Mr. Yukundus Muhonda fixing the aerators in the aqualium tank during 40th International trade fair 2016


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Canada’s largest mobile operator, Rogers Communications, and one of the country’s largest card issuers, Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, will launch an NFC-based mobile-payment service Nov. 16, with plans to expand the service early next year.
MasterCard has announced certifications for 17 NFC phones as well as its own mark that handset makers could display on device packaging, advertisements or even on the devices themselves, showing the phone is able to do contactless payments with MasterCard PayPass.
Infineon Technologies said it shipped at least 10 million embedded secure chips during both the third and fourth quarters of 2011 and predicts it will continue to sell “double-digit millions” of embedded chips each quarter after that.
Spain-based Telefónica Group and Research In Motion announced today an employee trial at Telefónica’s headquarters that will test up to three NFC-enabled BlackBerry models for payment and physical access control.
Research in Motion has announced that MasterCard Worldwide has certified two of its NFC-enabled BlackBerrys to run MasterCard’s PayPass payment application, and mobile operator France Telecom-Orange is interested in introducing the phones for NFC payment and other services.
Etisalat, the United Arab Emirates’ largest telco, disclosed plans to introduce NFC payment to the Gulf state, putting a MasterCard PayPass application on SIM cards in at least one NFC-enabled BlackBerry model.
NFC Times Exclusive – Samsung’s NFC payments platform, Samsung Pay, is due to launch in the summer in the U.S. and South Korea. But it’s not the only payments service planned for Samsung’s new flagship smartphone, the Galaxy S6.
NFC Times Exclusive Insight – Australia’s AMP Bank said it chose to launch mobile-payments with host-card emulation over other NFC technologies because of the “wider reach” the technology offers, since it’s “available to all NFC-enabled Android mobile phones running KitKat or later,” the bank’s director digital, Michael Weeding, told NFC Times.
NFC Times Exclusive Insight – New Zealand joint venture Semble has launched its SIM-based NFC mobile wallet, after delays and the decision by of two of the country’s big four banks to launch mobile payments from their own apps using host-card emulation.
NFC Times Exclusive Insight – Another major New Zealand bank has announced plans to launch NFC payments with host-card emulation, snubbing a joint venture set up to launch SIM-based NFC on the island nation.
NFC Times Exclusive Insight – Windows 10 for phones, set to be released later this year, will support host card emulation, or HCE, based NFC payments, Microsoft revealed at a recent Windows event in China.
NFC Times Exclusive Insight –Germany-based Giesecke & Devrient confirmed it is providing the host-card emulation technology for Commonwealth Bank’s commercial HCE launch this month of Tap & Pay from the bank’s Android-based mobile-banking app.
Identiv CEO Jason Hart sounded optimistic tones about the company’s NFC tag business, particularly in “Internet of Things” applications or tags for consumer goods, during a conference call last week to discuss Identiv’s fourth quarter and full year 2014 earnings, but investors responded with less optimism.
NFC Times Exclusive Insight – France-based Gemalto, which is keen to take the spotlight off its SIM business, projects EMV cards to represent perhaps the largest expected source of revenue growth in the coming year.


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This content was originally published by IoL Business Report. Original publishers retain all rights. It appears here for a limited time before automated archiving. By IoL Business Report
As regards an opinion run online on Business Report's website on June 25 "Covid 19 Exposes SA to accelerated Food Security Threat, says Fairplay".


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The latest consumer economic report has shown that the popularity of Cryptocurrency will double in the near future.
The ING Consumer Economic Report
The research conducted on behalf of Dutch banking giant ING Bank B.V by a research company IPSOS was carried out to discover just how well Cryptocurrencies have been received throughout Europe, Australia, and the United States. This research has been reportedly carried out several times annually and considers the age, gender, and population density of the countries taking part in the survey. This latest study was reportedly carried out by surveying over fifteen thousand respondents.
This research, carried out in over thirteen countries, has shown that only nine percent of the respondents had any Crypto holdings. However, twenty-five percent of the respondents registered an interest in Cryptocurrency, with this percentile looking to get into the Crypto space shortly.
The Survey Findings
The research has revealed that sixty-six percent of the respondents are aware of Cryptocurrency. The Crypto awareness rated from fifty percent and above in each of the surveyed countries. The US-registered fifty-seven percent of the respondents are aware of the Crypto space while Austria registered seventy-nine percent and seventy-seven percent in Poland. Of this percentile, seventy-seven percent were men with women occupying the remaining percentage. Thirty-five percent have opined that Cryptocurrency will be the preferred mode of payment shortly while another thirty-five percent said that they see the value of Cryptocurrencies increasing in value within the next twelve months.
In Europe, one in ten respondents owned Cryptocurrency. This result was also registered in the United States as well as Australia. Mobile bankers were revealed to have a higher probability of getting into the Crypto space as compared to those who were not in banking.
A Greater Risk Investment
The research has revealed that many of the respondents see Cryptocurrency being a riskier form of investment as compared to other types of investments like real estate, the stock market, and government bonds.
An IMG behavioral scientist, Jessica Exton, has stated that for many people, Cryptocurrency is an ideal investment but, that notwithstanding, there is also an increased interest in digital currencies. She also said that digital currency is viewed as a greater risk investment because of its volatility. She added that a stabilization in the Crypto sphere might boost the confidence of many and increase investment in this area.
ING’s economist on global markets, Teunis Brosens, has said that Cryptocurrency has a better chance of being successful in countries whose traditional financial system have become less reliable and efficient. He used the Dutch market as an example, stating that since they have a cheap domestic payment system that is very reliable, they tend to be more skeptical about the future of Cryptocurrencies.
This report has come at a time when the Crypto space is experiencing a downturn in the market. Most Cryptocurrencies are in the red, with Bitcoin’s price going down by 7.49 percent and Ethereum down by 13.01 percent. Ripple’s XRP and Tron has surprisingly been resilient in this market with both registering 11.28 and 11.24 percent drop respectively.


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BOSTON (SHNS) – It’s a good time to be a logistics specialist in New England.
They’re now earning twice as much as they were before the COVID-19 pandemic put their skills and expertise in high demand, a business contact said in a remark relayed by the Federal Reserve Bank in its latest update on economic conditions around the country. In Wednesday’s published Beige Book, which draws information from banking and business contacts, the Fed said that New England business activity “continued to grow at a modest to strong pace” through the summer with nearly all sectors of the economy reporting strong demand.
“Even in-store retail and restaurants in the region were upbeat,” the Fed said of the Boston region. Beige Book authors wrote that their contacts in the area — which covers all of New England except one Connecticut county — again reported limited labor supply and difficulties hiring for various reasons. “Some attributed this to expanded Unemployment Insurance (UI) benefits but others said that hiring was equally difficult for high wage workers and workers in states which had discontinued expanded UI,” the report said.
The Beige Book update said that some contacts reported bidding wars to attract qualified workers and that some businesses “were lowering their required qualifications and experience for job candidates and offering on-the-job training and opportunities for upward mobility.”
Though the availability of UI benefits was an oft-cited reason for the labor problems, the Fed highlighted that some other contacts said that the lack of child care options was the primary obstacle. In the restaurant industry, contacts reported strong summer sales but also mentioned the disruption of reimposed COVID restrictions.
“Menu prices have continued to rise since the spring as food, delivery, and labor costs have all continued to increase in recent months,” the Fed said. “Higher menu costs have resulted in modestly larger tips for front of the house staff, and efforts have been made to increase wages across restaurants to attract more workers.”


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A Bury St Edmunds road was blocked by a heavy goods vehicle this afternoon.
Students from four schools have been out encouraging drivers to think about the toxic fumes their cars emit.
Greater Anglia managing director Jamie Burles promises improvements
Thousands will be spent on making Bury St Edmunds and Needham Market railway stations accessible, the government has said.
Snowfall is set to be heaviest around midday tomorrow.
A Volkswagen car and articulated lorry crashed earlier on the A14 eastbound junction 51.
Initiative could raise road safety awareness.
Access to car park will be maintained throughout works to repair road surface.
A bid to improve a Bury St Edmunds shopping street as a ‘go to’ destination for visitors to the town took a further step forward this week.
A driver escaped with a 'minor injury' after a two car crash in Bury St Edmunds this afternoon.
A collision is causing tailbacks on the A14 at Bury St Edmunds.


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At least 32 brokerages raised their price targets on Facebook’s shares following the fourth quarter results that showed the firm’s profits soar to more than 30 times what they were in 2012, ballooning from $53m to $1.5bn.
Facebook operations chief Sheryl Sandberg saw her paper fortunes reach over $1bn with 12.3m Facebook shares worth close to $700m and an additional $300m from selling shares. While chief executive Mark Zuckerberg gained $3.2bn on paper from the rise in Facebook’s share price.
Advertising revenue rose 76 per cent with more than half coming from mobile devices compared to just 23 per cent a year ago. In total, the site made $1bn from mobile.


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In an effort to reach shoppers at one of their biggest moments of weakness — when they are buying groceries at the supermarket — eDiets.com today plans to roll out a nationwide in-store marketing campaign.
eDiets.com is a personalized diet and consulting site that recently launched a $10 million marketing campaign targeting women 25 to 45 years old. The campaign includes print, radio and online elements.
The instore advertising is the biggest thrust of the campaign. “What we’re trying to do is to interrupt and talk to people at the point where they’re making decisions about their weight loss and food intake,” said Patricia Hambrick, chief marketing officer at eDiets, Fort Lauderdale, FL. “Instore is the first place they fall off their diet.”
Shoppers at more than 3,000 Albertsons, Krogers, Safeways and Vons supermarkets will be greeted by a 3-foot-by-2-foot display stating, “You feel like you’ve lost weight. Have you been using eDiets.com?”
The campaign will include stickers on fruit, ads placed on shopping carts and coupon backers to create a fully integrated supermarket presence.
The marketing effort will run simultaneously in San Francisco, San Diego, Seattle, Atlanta and Washington throughout the summer.
Supporting media buys have been running since late April. An online marketing campaign is in full swing. Banners are running on major sites such as Yahoo, AOL and iVillage as well as self-help sites such as Dreamlife.com and RealAge.com.
Three weekly e-mail newsletters featuring fitness and weight-loss tips and other original content articles are sent to the site’s 1.5 million members. eDiets.com also runs an affiliate program.
Membership at the site is subscription-based. Dieters pay $10 per month to take part in its weight loss program. DiMassimo Brand Advertising, New York is the agency of record.


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Instagram is slowly shedding the “mobile-only” label it gained when it launched almost exactly two years ago. Users of the wildly popular, Facebook-owned photo app are getting Web-based profiles, it was announced on Monday. This sensible, overdue move for Instagram stands to benefits its users, but it doesn’t quite go all the way.
Instagram has been moving toward Web app territory for several months, but this is the service’s biggest step in that direction. In July, the Instagram added the ability to like and comment on photos from the Web version that gets pushed out via Twitter and Facebook. That update also included the ability to follow users when logged into your existing Instagram account in a Web browser. Creating such an account, however, remained a mobile-only feature.
How Instagram Users Will Benefit
Starting this week, users will start getting Facebook Timeline-style profiles that display their entire photo stream in the browser. This is a big deal. As popular as Instagram is on iOS and Android, it remains an island of content that exists largely outside of the open Web.
Making these photos navigable from the Web gives a more complete identity to Instagram users whose photos are being encountered by browser-bound visitors. Previously, all they could see on the Web was one photo, feedback from other users and a tiny avatar identifying the user who took the photo. Now they can browse other photos, interact with them and get a clearer understanding of the photographer and whether or not they’d like to follow them. This important context was missing before. Active Instagrammers should expect to see more trickle-down engagement across their photo stream when they post photos to Web-based social networks.
There’s Still A Wall Between Mobile And Web
While this substantial Instragram update addresses a long-standing user demand, it’s still incremental. You can’t click through and view a user’s followers or see who they’re following, for instance. This limits Web-based Instagram users’ ability to discover new people to follow. That’s still that happens exclusively from the mobile app, and even there it’s still disappointingly limited.
Photo Maps didn’t make their way into the new Instagram Web interface either. The new location-based layouts that launched in August turn out to be a very good thing for photo discovery on mobile devices, but curious Web users will have to wait to see them on bigger screens. That’s too bad.